


A Heart Full Of Love (He Was Never Mine To Lose)

by TheNightsQueen



Series: It's an actors life for me [1]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Theatre, F/M, High School, Les Miserables - Freeform, Les Misérables References, Theatre, performance au, still working it out tbh
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-30
Updated: 2018-06-06
Packaged: 2018-12-21 22:16:31
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 13,872
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11953767
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheNightsQueen/pseuds/TheNightsQueen
Summary: There was just something about acting. Something about becoming whoever you wanted, about being almost faceless, something so strong that it pulled Arya to the theatre just as gravity kept pulling her to the earth. It was beautiful, she didn’t have to be Arya Horseface like her sister called her, or Arya Underfoot like the men at her father’s office had nicknamed her, she didn’t even have to be Arya, she could be anyone she liked. She could try on faces like clothes, she could change personalities like the wind, and when she went to bed at night she could go back to being Arya, back home to her family, to her pack, and the next day she could be someone else all over again.





	1. Auditions? They were the worst.

 Her heels clicked against the floor as she paced. “If we shadows…”

 

_Click._

_Click._

_Click._

 

“If we shadows have offended…”

 

_Click._

_Click._

_Click._

 

“And this weak and idle theme… No more yielding but a dream.”

 

_Click._

_Click._

 

“And, as I am an honest Puck, If we have unearned luck-“

 

“Arya! Stop, you’re doing my head in!”

 

She stopped instantly, giving her companion an apologetic smile before taking her seat. Instead of talking, she pulled out a piece of paper, covered in notes and highlighted words. A copy of her audition monologue. She sat forward in the uncomfortable plastic chair, knees together as the balls of her feet pressed against the floor. Her eyes ran over the words, skipping every other one, she knew it, of course, but it didn’t stop her from tapping her finger against the paper as she read it once more.

 

“Come on, monologue or not, once they hear the set of pipes on you, you’re going to get cast, maybe even as an Anne Hathaway type.” Gendry told her, lazily flicking a lighter in his hand. Arya looked over at him, annoyed at how he managed to make the horrible plastic seats outside the theatre look perfectly comfortable, leaning back against it as he sat on a slant, staring more at his lighter than anything else as the minutes ticked past.

 

“Alright, Marius, just because your audition was yesterday, doesn’t mean you have to be condescending.” Arya retorted. It was different for Gendry, she noticed, when it came to his schoolwork he would jig his leg silently, his brow would furrow, he would take more notes than Arya thought possible for any one class. He threw himself into his maths and science revision, and judging by all the car magazines she knew were in his room, and the hours he put in at Motts garage, she had a good guess as to why. He didn’t here, in the theatre. Or more accurately, just outside the theatre at this moment in time. She had the sneaking suspicion that he was only there because she had dragged him to every audition she went to since they had met in primary school.

 

Her sister had done a dance for the school talent showcase with a group of her little friends, their mother had sent them both to ballet since they were young, and while Arya was supple enough and could probably make a fair gymnast, she couldn’t abide it. She would never have perfect posture like her redheaded sister, never have as good rhythm, or enough stamina to get through a tough routine. Nor could she swap her short, lithe frame, for Sansas tall and slender one. In the same talent show, Arya had done a Shakespeare monologue. Sansas group had obviously won, and she was sure only her parents had clapped for her monologue, but then there was a tall boy with blue eyes who came up to her after the show, wonder in his eyes and asked her how she could remember all the old words. She’d brought him to every audition since, even if just for support.

 

“Yeah well, I’m sure you’re going to get a good part anyway, if you don’t go over it too much before you go in that is.” He retorted as he leaned over and pulled her paper from her hand. “You know it anyway, just relax, you’ll get it.” Gendry told her, his lopsided grin already making it hard for her to protest.

 

There was just something about acting. Something about becoming whoever you wanted, about being almost faceless, something so strong that it pulled Arya to the theatre just as gravity kept pulling her to the earth. It was beautiful, she didn’t have to be Arya Horseface like her sister called her, or Arya Underfoot like the men at her father’s office had nicknamed her, she didn’t even have to be Arya, she could be anyone she liked. She could try on faces like clothes, she could change personalities like the wind, and when she went to bed at night she could go back to being Arya, back home to her family, to her pack, and the next day she could be someone else all over again.

 

Needless to say, she loved it.

 

Acting, she loved. Auditions, they were the worst.

 

Arya would be lying if she told anyone she wasn’t hoping for the part of Cosette, which, of course, is what she told everyone. She didn’t want to play a priss, though she did have the voice for it. Now that Gendry was Marius though, she was tempted to aim for the part, if she could. The school didn’t let people audition for specific parts, you just had to prepare a song and a monologue for the director and Mr Luwin would assign parts after that. Still, she had been in all the schools productions so far, she could always put in a word for it…

 

She shook her head, no. She wouldn’t think about that. Gendry was her friend, and she didn’t want to complicate that with her acting. Though this was the first time Gendry had got the lead in a school musical, it would be nice to act off him. That's all she wanted. Or at least, that's all she was convincing herself she wanted. 

 

“Well, I’ll get something, I just hope it isn’t chorus.” She replied with a small grin, knowing that whatever part she got, she would have to sing chorus parts backstage, the school didn’t have a big enough choir to pad out the choral singers, and Arya was a good singer, something she prided with her acting against Sansa’s competition winning dance skills.

 

“Like Luwin would leave you to chorus.” He laughed, before nodding as Margery Tyrell came out of the audition room.

 

“You’re up Stark.” She smiled as she collected her things to leave. Of all of Sansa’s friend, Margery was the most intimidating. She’d make a point not to be horrible to Arya, but had a way of making her feel small all the same. Not like Jeyne Pool, she was always snickering and making fun of Arya with Sansa, more so when they were small, and it made the younger Stark hate her. Margery was more, confusing. It wasn’t like Arya wanted to be her friend, but Margery did have a way of making people crave their approval.

 

“Cheers.” Arya nodded, before ruffling Gendry's hair as she stood up, knowing it would irritate him. “For luck.” She grinned at the older boy who protested, and her nerves dissipated as she pushed the doors open, throwing her shoulders back she walked in with confidence.

 

* * *

 

“You know, pressing the refresh button every five minutes probably isn’t going to help. You’ll get a notification on your phone anyway.”

 

“Shut up and go back to killing your zombies.”

She had nailed that audition, of that much, Arya was sure. So why was it taking so long for the casting email to come through? She knew Luwin was quick with these things, he wanted scripts out by tomorrow, so he would cast before nine that evening.

 

Which was why, at twenty past eight, Arya was still led on her stomach on Jons bed, her laptop out in front of her with her inbox open, which she was refreshing far more often than every five minutes. She hadn’t stopped staring for at least an hour, while Jon played his games console on the floor in front of her. Any other day she’d be playing with him, or at Gendry’s doing more of the same, but she was waiting to know what part she got, and no amount of zombie killing was going to take her mind off that. Besides which she knew she’d loose if she was this distracted, and she didn’t like loosing to Jon, especially at games she was good at.

 

“I want that bloody email.” Arya groaned as she refreshed her page once again.

 

“Hey, whatever you get, you’re going to rock it. What does it matter?” Jon asked, pausing his game to look up at his little sister.

 

“It matters, because Gendry's the lead on this one.” She shrugged, sitting up to talk to him. “It would be so easy if I got Cosette, we could practice together, and its his first main part. Be good to work together for it.”

 

“I thought you didn’t want that part?” He asked, remembering her rants about the character over the dinner table after the musical was first announced. The main problem being that it was one of the bigger female parts, but not someone Arya would much enjoy playing.

 

“I didn’t really, but it is one of the better parts.” She reasoned, leaning forward to refresh her page.

 

“It sounds more like if you get the part, it means nobody else can have it.” Jon said, raising one eyebrow at her.

 

“Well, duh. What are you getting at?” Arya retorted, a little lost by the obviousness of his statement.

 

“That you don’t want someone else playing Cosette to Gendry's Marius.” He told her before turning back to his game.

 

Arya's cheeks heated, but she frowned anyway. “Not true, it’s just a part, I don’t care about that.”

 

Before Jon could answer, a notification sound rang from Arya’s computer and she jumped at the chance to find out her part.

  
  
“Oh.” She said as she read the email, tilting her screen away from Jon to read it.

  
  
“Who did you get then?” He asked as he continued to shoot zombies in the face.

  
  
“Eponine.”

 

Arya groaned as she flopped back on Jon's bed. This was going to be harder than she’d thought.


	2. Cute? Arya thought not.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cute? Cute!? Arya thought not. Wishing she could just tell Margaery to get stuffed, Arya bit the inside of her cheek to stop herself from actually voicing her thoughts. She wasn’t a girl you wanted to be on the bad side of, and besides, she’d been getting on with Sansa lately and didn’t want to ruin it by snapping at her best friend.

After a grand total of one week of rehearsals, Arya prided herself on being able to ignore Margaery Tyrell’s stupid giggles. It was hard though, especially when she giggled at everything Gendry was saying, even when it wasn’t really that funny. It was about the fourteenth time Margaery giggled at something during the first fifteen minutes that Arya decided, actually, she would rather stick pencils in Margaery’s eyes than hear it again.

 

Instead of committing what would probably be considered a murder attempt, she sided off with Hotpie instead, the stage manager for this show. As Arya tried not to picture where else Margaery could stick her giggles, she heard her organising an extra rehearsal with him outside of the theatre for their duets. During actual rehearsals, they hadn’t got much further than the choral pieces, and Arya was growing more irritated by the day. She was going home after rehearsals, sick of Margaery Tyrell, and having not rehearsed any of her parts for Eponine yet.

 

“It’s not like Mr Luwin to typecast.” She grumbled to Hotpie as she picked up her notebook and a chair ready to contribute to their ideas session at the begging of each rehearsal for the first two weeks.

 

“She isn’t that bad. She’s just trying to get more rehearsals in, what’s wrong with that? Besides, you can’t deny, she looks the part.”

 

“Well, no. But so does Myrcella, and she’s not been cast as Cossette.” Arya retorted, knowing she couldn’t deny that Margaery did make a good Cossette to her Eponine. There was a great contrast between the two, Arya with her dark brown, almost black hair, and Margaery with her very light brown curls. They had a substantial height difference, and Margaery’s vocal range was slightly higher than Arya. They were as different as could be, and she knew that Mr Luwin had cast the show just right, she would have cast the same way if it were her.

 

Hotpie didn’t have time to answer as Luwin called for everyone to be quiet as they started to share ideas in their messy circle, made up of mismatched chairs, with some student using them as tables, and some of the cast led on their stomachs, all with notebooks in front of them.

 

Arya took avid notes as the cast spoke in turn, some people proposing impractical things and other some more reasonable concepts. Arya held back an eye roll as Margaery suggested dressing Cossette in white and Eponine in black, as if the contrast wasn’t obvious enough. She wrote it down anyway, knowing that they did need a way to portray the obvious parallel between their characters to the audience.

 

She smiled as they got round to her, suggesting something that Arya humbly considered one of her better ideas in order to get around the fact they had been so far unable to cast a young Cossette for the Castle on a Cloud song.

 

“We could silhouette it, if we have the lights point at a downwards angle at Margaery we could make her silhouette look the size of a small child, similar to if you had the light pointing at her feet she would make a really large shadow, if you do it pointing down from above her head she would make a small shadow. It would be an easy scene change as we just need to pull down the white sheet in front of the curtains, and we could even create a castle on a cloud around Margaery using paper in front of the light!” Arya suggested, getting more enthusiastic as she explained her idea to everyone, and she could just tell by the grin on Hotpie’s face that he was practically salivating at the idea of staging that.

 

Arya finished up her notes as they finished pitching ideas and putting their chairs away as Luwin made his way behind the old piano, wanting to go through some of the smaller parts with what they had left of their rehearsal. He called up Tommen Baratheon to go through his Gavroche sections, getting everyone else to sing chorus on the songs he was in.

 

Arya had assumed Tommen had only auditioned because Myrcella had, but she couldn’t deny he had a great tone that made him sound younger than he was, and he was a short little thing, so he made a great Gavroche. Arya had made notes on the original novel as well as many iterations of the play, and knew Gavroche and Eponine to be siblings, which was something she was going to mention exploring in the staging, but they hadn’t gotten around to that earlier today.

 

After giving Tommen a good chunk of feedback and things to work on, he called up Myrcella to go through At the End of the Day, and  I Dreamed a Dream, something Arya was glad not to be performing. Her own part was perfect for her, decent sized with a death scene, and without the pressure of singing the most famous song in the musical. She didn’t envy her brothers girlfriend one bit for that.

 

By time Luwin had finished Myrcellas feedback, it was half five and the rehearsal had finished. It was the last rehearsal of the week and Arya faced going home having done nothing but sing chorus again.

 

She picked up a copy of next weeks rehearsal schedule from on top of the piano and skimmed it quickly.

 

**REHERSAL SCHEDULE**

**MONDAY: Any character who is in the Café, Marius, Enjorlas, students, etc.**

**TUESDAY: Cosette, Jean Valjean, and the Thenadiers.**

**WEDNESDAY: Javery and Jean Valjean**

**THURSDAY: Eponine, Cosette, and Marius**

**FRIDAY: Full cast, full vocal run through, no staging.**

 

While she was glad there were now smaller group rehearsals, she was only in three rehearsals next week, which in Arya’s opinion kind of sucked, even if it did give her time to catch up on her homework.

 

Stuffing the schedule in her bag without much care, Arya wandered over to where Margaery was chatting away at Gendry, again.

 

“Hey.” She interrupted Margaery without even looking at her, speaking directly to Gendry. “You ready to go yet?” she asked bluntly with one raised eyebrow. He was her ride, and had been ever since he got his licence. It was just the way things were. Not to mention she spent half the days after school studying at his, or more, playing video games at his.

 

“Oh, uh..” Gendry mumbled, looking between the two girls and wondering why Arya was so grumpy, but he made to pick up his bag anyway.

 

“Oh, are you taking Arya home?” Margaery asked. Her tone was innocent enough, but Arya resented the way Margaery made her sound like some kid. She got even more frustrated when Gendry just nodded.

 

“Cute. Would you mind if I caught a ride with you guys? I was on my way over to study with Sansa tonight, and if you’re going that way, it would save me a bus fare…” She trailed off hopefully, looking up at Gendry.

 

Cute? _Cute!?_ Arya thought not. It was practical, she spent a lot of her time with Gendry, and he came round hers for dinner whenever his mum was working, which was pretty often considering she worked shifts. Catelyn didn’t mind, she cooked enough to feed a small army, and took looking after her children’s friends without a second thought.

 

Wishing she could just tell Margaery to get stuffed, Arya bit the inside of her cheek to stop herself from actually voicing her thoughts. She wasn’t a girl you wanted to be on the bad side of, and besides, she’d been getting on with Sansa lately and didn’t want to ruin it by snapping at her best friend.

 

“Uh. Sure, I guess so.”

 

Arya looked over at her in silent triumph. ‘I guess’ wasn’t exactly a ringing endorsement of someone wanting to spend time with you, he never said that to her when Arya suggested plans.

 

“Thank you!” The taller girl smiled as she picked up her things. “You don’t mind, do you Arya?” she asked, as an afterthought more than anything. Though it felt like she was trying to rub it in.

 

“You’re going the same way anyway. Might as well.” She shrugged grumpily, attempting not to come off as aggressive, though that was generally Arya’s vibe.

 

Margaery was first to the car, and made a beeline for the front seat, which prickled Arya’s temper, but she just pulled her phone out and stuck her headphones in. If she was going to be antisocial, she was going to do it properly.

 

She sprawled out on the back seats of Gendrys beat up jeep that he’d restored himself. Arya loved The Bull, which is what she had named the car from the moment Gendry had picked up the run down old thing. He’d never wanted to give it a name, but The Bull had stuck, even in his mind.

 

Though Arya chose to stay silent on the journey back to her home, she could see the conversation flowing easily between the other two up front. She had never really thought about the three years between her and Gendry, it never mattered. Until now, she could feel it now. She had never felt so much like a child in his car before, and yet, here she was. Well, nobody could accuse her of not getting into character as the slighted Eponine.

 

“See you tomorrow.” She said shortly to Gendry before sliding out of the car. Though she knew his mum was working today, she didn’t invite him in. She knew he’d be fine with takeout pizza or something, he always had that sort of thing when Arya was over for a movie marathon or something. Today she just wasn’t in the mood to spend time with Gendry, when it was clear that he would rather be spending time with someone like Margaery.

 

She stuffed her headphones in her bag as she walked up the drive and hear Margaery hurry after her, and The Bull pull away out of her drive. “I loved your idea, with the silhouettes today.” Margaery offered, and suddenly Arya felt stupid. No wonder she felt like a child, she had been acting like one for the entire car journey.

 

Who cares if Gendry liked her, it wasn’t as though Arya cared. Gendry could ring all the bells he liked, it didn’t make no difference to her.

 

“Cheers. Your idea of emphasizing the contrast of Cossette and Eponine was really good too.” She replied begrudgingly, trying not to act every bit the spoiled brat that Gendry accused her of being sometimes.

 

“Thanks, but thinking about it, we wouldn’t be able to see any blood on your costume during your death at the barricade if you’re dressed in black. We’ll have to think of something else to show the contrast.” She smiled, and Arya realised they’d stopped walking and were just stood talking in her driveway.

 

“Oh, yeah, I hadn’t thought of that. I’ll have a think though, because I really like the idea.” Arya nodded, before looking down the road awkwardly, she’d been pretty rude to Margaery earlier, and she still wasn’t comfortable with how Gendry was behaving with her. Not that she cared.

 

“He’s pretty good looking, isn’t he?” Margaery smirked knowingly.

 

“What? Gendry? He’s just… Gendry.” Startled, Arya couldn’t find anything more eloquent to say, shaking her head a little.

 

Margaery laughed, a soft thing that sounded like a bell. And got right on Arya’s nerves. “Well, sure. But Gendry’s hot.” She grinned.

 

“If that’s your thing I guess.” Arya replied, gritting her teeth. She could try as hard as she liked not to be annoyed with Margaery, but she didn’t like being pushed out of her own friendship group.

 

“Well, I best be up, before Sansa starts thinking I’m not coming.” She smiled as she let herself into the house. It took Arya half a second to follow her, she was so annoyed. She let the door slam shut behind her and went straight up to her room as she could hear Margaery greet her mother.

 

She flopped down on her bed, not even bothering to take her jacket off and screamed into her pillow.

 

So much for trying not to be petty. She didn’t want to stick pencils in Margaery’s eyes anymore, but she could sure settle for a sword to her stomach.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is probably going to be the length of chapters from here on out, and again, feedback is welcomed and appreciated! I don't know how long this is going to be but I am going to finish it! (Famous last words, I know.) I do feel really determined and into this one, so hopefully the updates should keep coming this quickly.


	3. Miss Arya

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “So. Edric Dayne, huh?” 
> 
> “What about him?”

The lights in the drama studio flickered to life with great effort as Arya walked in on Monday. She dumped her stuff in the empty corner, leaning her hockey stick up against the wall as she checked the time. 3:45. People wouldn’t be arriving for a little while yet. Still, the empty drama studio was far more appealing than anything else she should have been doing in her free period; including studying for her English Mock that Mr Pycelle had assigned for her class next week. He really seemed to hate them. 

 

Arya made a beeline to the old speaker in the corner and plugged in her phone. While she was scrolling through to find the backing track to On My Own, she was surprised to hear the door open again. She hadn't expected people to start arriving until at least gone 4:00. 

 

“Oh, hey Ned.” She said, as she registered who it was that just walked in. It made sense, they were both year 11’s, he could easily have had a free period at the same time. In fact they shared most of their lessons, so it was highly probable in fact.

 

“Fancy seeing you here Miss Arya.” Ned smiled softly as he put his bag down next to hers in the corner.

 

“Well, aren’t you the funny man?” she bit back sarcastically as he called her miss Arya, an old joke between the two. They’d been to school together since they were young, and Arya never let him forget the day where he bumped into Arya in the corridor and his first reaction was ‘excuse me miss’. The joke of little eight year old Edric Dayne calling seven year old tomboy Arya miss had never died between them.

 

“Aunt Allyria calls it having manners, actually.” He grinned as he sat up on an old desk at the side of the room. “What are you up to here then?”

 

“Chorus, Èponine dresses as a boy for a lot of the scenes with the barricade, just before she dies, remember?”

 

“I didn’t, but glad to have you here anyways. Your ideas are always better than the rest of ours.”

 

“I’m flattered.” Arya said dryly, but she was still smiling a little anyway. “Why are you here so early anyway?”

 

“Thought I’d come in for a bit of piece and quiet, the common room isn’t exactly a good place for it.” Ned replied with a small laugh. “And I thought I might get a bit of extra rehearsal in while I have the time. But I see you beat me to that.”

 

Arya rolled her eyes with a smile still playing at her lips. “I’m sure we can split the time up and we can both warm up.”

 

* * *

 

The sound of laughter filled the room as some silly pop song played over the speaker, and the sight Gendry was confronted with upon arriving for rehearsals was utterly inconceivable. Arya and Ned were almost bent over laughing as they sang along to a song that Gendry hadn’t heard before, and definitely didn’t sound like it came from Arya’s playlist.

 

 _“Theres something about the sunshine baby, I’m seeing you in a whole new light!”_ Arya sang through her laughter, and she clearly wasn’t putting her effort into singing well, and it was mildly frustrating that she sounded as good as she did even when she was just joking about.

 

“Am I interrupting something?” Gendry asked as he let the door shut behind him, a mildly bemused look on his face.

 

Arya looked up, still laughing as Ned walked over and cut the music off. “Ned has some stupid Disney song on his phone, Sansa made me watch the movie once.” She explained, like it was the funniest thing in the world.

 

“Right…” Gendry said, raising one eyebrow, clearly missing the joke as he went and put his bag with the others. It didn’t quite sit right with him that Arya had been joking around with Ned for presumably the last hour. He was doing an extra year at the schools sixth form so he could take further maths, he had filled his timetable in his first two years, so he had asked to stay on and take his further maths course for a year while working at Motts so he could save for university.

 

He rolled his eyes as the younger two started chatting once again about this and that while he dug through his bag for the sheet music he needed for today. It didn’t take long before the rest of the cast filtered in, which Gendry was grateful for as he drew up a chair next to Arya, making a point of choosing to do so, glancing up at Ned as he sat down.

 

This statement of Gendrys didn’t last long as Mr Luwin arrived and got everyone to stand up so they could all do a vocal warm up. To make matters worse, Luwin wanted to start work on Look Down, where Gendry had to be best friends to Edric’s Enjorlas.

 

They had the plan to get little year seven Tommen to run through the audience with his lines, entering from the back of the theatre and making his way to the stage as if rising from the people, while Gendry and Edric stood onstage in the centre of the chorus singers, stood on a literal soapbox so they were taller than the rest of the people on stage.

 

He didn’t know why Edric irritated him so much, after all, Arya liked him. That surely meant something in Gendry’s estimation of him, but he just couldn’t stand the way he always called her ‘Miss Arya’ and he made her laugh far more than Arya usually deigned necessary. Not that it meant anything, no matter how annoyed he was at Edric, he could tell that he was good for Arya to spend time with. It was Gendrys last year at the school, it was good for her to have other friends. Even so, Gendry just plain didn’t like him.

 

They ran through the song a once without doing any blocking, before they got a pair of chairs to stand in for the soapbox they wanted to get for Gendry and Ned to stand on and placing it in the middle of the crowd of what would eventually be all of the chorus members along with the students. They had the crowd moving in a way that hid the box from view until the pair stood on it, it made the crowd look like one sprawling mass of hunger. Using physical theatre techniques they created layers by having some of the smaller members climb across the backs of others who were hunched in the gutter. Of course, this made it much harder to sing at the same time, so they played one of the cast recordings to get the pacing of the scene right before running through the lines.

 

Arya had a great time clambering over some of the other students, as quite a small girl she was one who climbed across others to reach out, and she loved the way it looked so far, it would be even better once the rest of the chorus was in on Friday.

 

Smiling as Arya laughed and stumbled over people, Gendry stood on his chair next to Ned and was oddly bored as his blocking was literally just standing on the box and singing. It took a little while to get that right, and they did one run of the song with everyone singing, and grateful for something to do, Gendry threw himself into it, singing with conviction and making sure to act off of Ned.

 

They skipped over the next lot of scenes in favour of doing Red and Black, which they decided to keep vaguely simple, with the students at a few tables, which of course they didn’t have, so they just had clusters of tables. Arya suggested that as each student sang a line they walked over to a different table to keep the scene visually interesting and avoid having a really static scene of actors around tables.

 

They kept going with that scene, including the next song of Do You Hear the People Sing? in the same scene without having it separated from Red and Black. It kept the flow much better, but they did have them standing on chairs and tables for that song, while Gavroche darted between the tables with a red flag.

 

Considering this blocking was fairly simple they decided to block the little scene between Eponine and Marius where he asked her to track down Cosette with their extra time.

 

Arya smiled as she got up, leaving her script behind. She knew her lines, and these small conjoining scenes were always subject to change so why bother?

 

 _“Cosette now I remember? Cosette how can it be? We were children together, look at what’s become of me?”_ Arya sang, from upstage right as she looked on at all the commotion that would be happening first, she shook her head before the music started again and she moved forward to where Gendry was standing downstage centre as he watched the imaginary Cosette leave the stage. _“Good God, oh what a ruckus.”_ She sang, and Gendry picked up right as she finished.

 

 _“That girl, who could she be?”_ He sang, still staring after where Cosette would leave stage right, as Arya looked at where Javert would have just left on the opposite side of the stage.

 

 _“That cop, he’d like to jump us, but he ain’t smart like me.”_ Arya continued gleefully as Gendry stood and pulled at her shoulder so she turned to face him.

 

_“Eponine, who was that girl?”_

 

 _“That bourgeois two a penny thing?”_ Arya answered as dismissively as she could as she sang, playing up the teasing angle of her character, especially in this scene.

 

 _“Eponine, find her for me.”_ Gendry wasn’t playing into it, which worked well in character, but it still pricked at Aryas skin.

 

 _“What will you give me?”_ She teased flirtatiously.

 

_“Anything.”_

 

They ignored the rest of the cast making bad jokes from the sides of the room, though Arya wasn't annoyed by it. Would it have been anyone else playing this scene she would have been making jokes of her own. 

 

 _“Got you all excited now, but God knows what you see in her. Aint you all delighted now?”_ Arya sang gleefully, wanting to play with the early scenes of Eponine and Marius, but as he mimed taking money out of his jacket, she let the smile turn to ash upon her face, and her tone changed to reflect that as she continued to sing. _“No… I don’t want your money sir.”_ Arya shook her head and turned to leave, clearly being offended at the money.

 

 _“Eponine, do this for me, discover where she lives, but careful how you go, don’t let your father know. ‘Ponine, I’m lost until she’s found!”_ Gendry moved to catch her wrist as she tried to leave, and Arya went along with it, obviously softening up as he sang his lines.

 

 _“See, I told you so. There’s lots of things I know.”_ Arya sang, somewhat sadly as Gendry grinned and left offstage, leaving Arya to face the audience while the cast behind her started bringing on tables for the next scene that they’d already blocked. _“'Ponine, she knows her way around.”_ She sang before leaving the opposite way.

 

They made a few changes to the blocking between Gendry and Arya, but Mr Luwin had liked what they’d started with so far so they didn’t change too much, knowing it would get better with each rehearsal. They went over it a few more times to get the timing right with getting the rest of the set on behind Arya while she sang, but they got it pretty quickly. 

 

After a few more runs of everything they had blocked that day, Mr Luwin decided to call it a day. Making sure everyone stayed for an extra five minutes to note down their blocking in their scripts, because it was certain that people would forget it if it wasn't written down. 

 

Arya smiled as she went over to get her bag, she’d managed to make enough notes in her script while the rest of the people in were singing Red and Black, something she wasn’t in, and she had the small scene with her and Gendry set in her head, so she would make notes on that later. She was in  pretty good mood as she walked over to Gendry, and she was still in a playful mood from where she’d been having a laugh with Ned earlier, so she sang to him in the tune of what they’d just been singing. _“Gendry dear, give me a lift?”_ she laughed as he countered back quickly, using her tune and tried to reach her higher pitch too.

 

 _“In that old red mechanic thing?”_ He grinned, referencing the Bull which he had painted red at Arya’s behest.

 

 _“Gendry dear, do this for me.”_ Arya grinned, as the people around them started laughing.

 

 _“What will you give me?”_ He countered with his own lopsided grin.

 

 _“Anything.”_ Arya smirked, trying her hardest not to blush as the people who were listening into their joke made ‘oooh’ sounds, grinning at the pair as they overdramatically sung each others tunes.

 

 _“Got you all excited now, but god knows are you ready yet? Got you all delighted now, but first I want a cigarette.”_ He laughed, digging his car keys out of his bag.

 

 _“Gendry dear, do this for me. Take me to where I live, but careful how you go, don’t you drive too slow. Gendry, I’m ready now to go!”_ Arya sang back at him as they turned to leave, laughing too hard to carry on singing at each other.

 

This was how Arya liked it, just the two of them, messing about and joking with each other. This was how rehearsals were meant to go, with good ideas and good laughs, not with Margery bloody Tyrell sticking her nose in where it wasn’t wanted. 

 

The pair were grinning like fools as they walked across the student car park, but Arya stopped when she heard someone call out her name.

 

“Arya, hey, I just thought, well, um, here.” Ned said as he caught up with her, thrusting a scrap of paper in her direction. “It’s my number, if you wanted to rehearse again, like we did earlier, or just, go out for coffee or something.” He smiled awkwardly, scratching the back of his head.

 

Arya tried not to blush as she noted that Gendry had just carried on walking. “Oh, Ned, um. That’s real nice…” She started, and she could see Neds smile already starting to fade at her tone. “Sure, coffee would be great.” Arya amended quickly. “As friends. We could study together, we have that English mock in Pycelles class coming up next week?” She suggested, making her intentions clear. Ned was sweet, she supposed, if you liked that sort of thing, but he was Arya’s friend and that’s all she could see when she looked at him. A friend.

 

“Oh, sure, yeah. That’s… that’s what I meant too.” Ned lied, unconvincingly, but the pair decided it would be kinder to both of them to just pretend. “Text me when you’re free and we can go to that new café in town or something.”

 

“Sure, thanks Ned.” She smiled, trying to be kind. She never wanted to hurt his feelings, even if it was really strange. “I’d better go, I’ll see you around though.” Arya said, giving him a wave as she hurried over to The Bull.

 

Gendry didn’t say anything as he started the car and pulled out of the car park, his grin from earlier had gone as he had his eyes set on the road. Arya busied herself with finding a better radio station so she didn’t have to listen to his silence. It was a good five minutes before Gendry decided to break it.

 

“So. Edric Dayne, huh?” He said, trying his best to just sound conversational.

 

“What about him?” Arya replied, looking up at Gendry with mild confusion.

 

“I don’t know. First boyfriend, seems like a big deal. Thought you’d want to talk about it, I mean, most girls talk about that stuff with their friends, right?” He asked, still not looking up from the road.

 

“If you weren’t driving right now I’d punch you.” Arya replied, her tone getting heated. “He’s not my boyfriend stupid! And besides, I’ve dated other guys before, he wouldn’t be my first boyfriend, I’m nearly seventeen, not seven!” She rambled, “Besides how am I meant to know what most girls do!? In case you haven’t noticed, most of my friends are guys!”

 

“Okay! Okay, sorry.” Gendry sighed, holding his fingers up off the wheel to gesture that he was taking back what he said.

 

Arya huffed and crossed her arms, looking out the passenger side window as they listened to the radio for a few more minutes.

 

“So… you’re not dating anyone?” Gendry asked a few moments later.

 

“No. What do you care anyway, stupid?”

 

“I don’t!”

 

“Good!”

 

“Fine!”

 

“Alright then!”

 

“Alright.”

 

There was a moment of silence between the two before Arya started laughing, trying to keep it in but failing. Gendry glanced at her, trying to keep his eyes on the road but before long he was laughing with her.

 

“I wasn’t trying to pry.” Gendry said once their laughter had subsided.

 

“I know. He just asked me out. I said no though.” She explained, offering an explanation in lieu of an apology. Arya didn’t like apologising much, it was against her steadfast nature. She would, if she thought she was wrong, but in this case she didn’t really.

 

“Oh. I thought you two got on.” Gendry said, slowly testing the boundaries of this conversation.

 

“We do, just not like that. He’s a laugh, but I couldn’t see myself spending all my time with him, or doing all that mushy romance stuff that you can tell he’s probably into.” She shrugged, pulling her knees up to her chest.

 

“Oh, right.” He nodded simply, turning onto her estate.

 

“You seem pretty interested. Why, you planning on asking Ned out?” Arya teased with a smirk as she looked up at him.

 

Gendry laughed. “Hardly, just wondering where you were at with him, that’s all.”

“I’d tell you.” Arya said sincerely as he pulled up her drive.

 

Gendry just nodded as he parked The Bull and shut off the engine.

 

“Wanna come in and kick some zombie ass with Jon? Mums cooking lasagne for tea, and she always cooks enough for extra.” She smiled, though it was their normal routine, Gendry always needed to be asked in before he would come in. Arya made enough jokes about him being a vampire, but really it was because he felt awkward being with such a big and friendly family. Arya found it easier just to swing by his, with just him and his mum. His mum had always liked Arya, just as Catelyn had liked Gendry looking out for her younger daughter. He always got a bit of a tougher vibe from her dad though, probably considering he was closer to Robbs age than Arya’s.

 

“Is there anything else worth doing on a Monday afternoon?” He grinned, leaning behind him to grab his rucksack.

 

“Not in this world.” Arya laughed.


	4. My Place?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “What was that then?” Arya asked, climbing into the front seat without getting out of the car and going around like any other person might have thought to do.
> 
> “What was what?” Gendry asked, looking into the distance.
> 
> “You haven’t looked at me since we left, Gendry. You’re being short and-“

Things went back to normal. Arya met Gendry for lunch, and they say with Lommy, Hotpie and Ned joined them now. Gendry didn’t seem to mind anymore, which Arya was glad for. Ned was a laugh, and that was all. They went to rehearsals, and when they were done they went back to hers to beat Jon at his stupid zombie game and try and get Robb to play poker with them. On the days she didn’t have rehearsals, Sansa happily drove her home, as she’d only just gotten her license and was pretty much just happy to be driving at all.

 

She even started trying to get on more with Margery, considering that she was spending as much time at the Stark house as Gendry these days, studying with Sansa nearly every day, even after rehearsals. Arya didn’t think much of it, Sansa always had been a bit of a study addict, though she didn’t recall Margery in the library much before she was friends with Sansa.

 

Then came the rehearsal she wasn’t sure if she was looking forward to or not. A rehearsal call for Arya, Gendry and Margery, and she knew it would be to work on A Heart Full of Love, and their solos. As much as she wanted to start working on her parts, she could already feel the awkwardness in the pit of her stomach as she thought about watching Gendry and Margery play a happy couple.

 

Arya arrived early, which wasn’t surprising with the other two being in the sixth form, their lessons often overran. She dumped her stuff in the corner unceremoniously and pulled her sheet music from her bag before clearing the chairs that had been left over the studio by the last class who hadn’t bothered to pack away. She was still clearing chairs as Luwin walked into the studio.

 

He smiled at Arya as he bustled into the room, and she returned the smile. “Good day sir?” She asked as she put the last of the chairs back.

 

“I’m sure you remember your year seven drama lessons well enough without hearing me complain about the mayhem.” He returned with a wry smile. “You ready to work on your solo today?”

 

“I’ve been dying to since we started rehearsing.” Arya admitted with a nod. “I could do without the other songs though.” She joked.

 

“You’ve got the skill to pull that harmony off, I don’t know what you’re worried about.” Luwin assured her.

 

Arya cringed as she realised she’d gotten herself into a bit of a hole with what she was saying. “No, I’m not worried about that… It’s just, a soppy scene I guess.” She shrugged, as if it didn’t bother her that much, regardless of what she’d just said.

 

“Ah, I see.” He nodded, though Arya was certain he understood nothing beyond her being a bit of a tomboy and not liking the romance angle. “Well, you’ll just have to act through it.” He smiled.

 

She laughed a little, acting, she could do. “I suppose I will.” She agreed as the door swung open to reveal both Gendry and Margery together.

 

Arya supressed the urge to roll her eyes, after all she was making an effort to get on with the other girl, she just, hadn’t realised it would be this much effort. Arya hated the way she continued to laugh at things Gendry said that weren’t even funny, and how she walked in heeled boots without even faltering, making her reach Gendry’s chin in height. Most of all, Arya hated how she managed to make the school uniform look effortlessly good, the blouse hugging her waist and the pencil skirt hugging her thighs in a way that made Arya seethe, they looked a perfect couple, and it drove her insane.

 

When she was alone, or with Sansa, Arya found she actually liked Margery’s sly wit and the way she could twist her words without thinking about it. She found herself laughing with the other girl, making her own jokes blunter, and was frankly shocked at some of the things she said, things that Sansa could never bring herself to joke about without blushing. And yet, as soon as Gendry was around, Arya found her smiles becoming fake, found herself less interested in what Margery had to say, it was usually about some sixth form teacher that she didn’t know, or about their further maths course, so Arya couldn’t understand a word.

 

“Hey.” She said as they put their stuff by hers and joined her in the centre of the studio.

 

Before they could reply, Luwin had walked over to the store cupboard and started speaking. “Okay, so we got the gate from the GCSE Tech student’s, so we can actually rehearse today with a bit of set, if you don’t mind helping me move it.” He smiled as he unlocked the cupboard to reveal a wrought iron style gate with fake ivy going up it, it was taller than Gendry, though barely, and Arya was quite sure that they wouldn’t have any prop walls either side of it, so it wouldn’t open.

 

Gendry walked over and pulled the gate out, putting it in the place they’d blocked it earlier in the week, and Arya had to admit, he did look pretty good. It looked pretty good, she thought, the gate. The gate looked good.

 

“Okay so Margery, if you go behind it to back stage left, and Gendry try to remember your audience, I want you two to be able to connect through that gate, but the audience need to see your face.” Luwin continued as he walked over to sit at a desk in the corner of the room with the speaker system on it.

 

“Got it.” Margery smiled as she walked over to her corner of the stage, there was to be a bench in the corner where Valjean would sit with her at the beginning of the song, as they planned on using the original version of this song.

 

“So Gendry and Arya, you’ll enter from stage right, Arya you’re showing Gendry where to go, but he’s eager, and keeps walking ahead of you.” He reiterated their blocking from the other day. “We’re just going to go straight into it, do whatever warm up you need and then we’ll keep going through it, you’ll warm up as we go.” Luwin explained as he set up the computer to find the backing tracks.

 

Arya nodded and didn’t stop to chat, she turned her back on the others and started siren-ing as a vocal warm up, knowing she’d need to be able to hit some high notes in the harmony, and she heard Margery do the same and Gendry start going over some tongue twisters. She done a few sirens before turning back to the others, it always felt strange to look someone in the eye while doing a siren after all, and moving her jaw as if she was chewing toffee to warm her facial muscles up.

 

She walked over to her starting position, which would be off stage but for now it was just at the side of the room; she watched as Margery started off the song with the ‘I saw him once’ section, and it was clear to Arya she’d been practising, she sounded good. Soft, light and innocent, exactly how Cosette is supposed to sound, and Arya found herself wondering if she could actually sing like that. Her voice had more gravity to it, that was for certain, but it clearly took skill for Margery to sing as she was. Luwin filled in for Valjean in the song, and soon enough it was close enough for Arya and Gendry to enter. She took Gendry by the hand and pulled him on just before his queue, and Gendry took her lead, swinging Arya round so he was further ahead of her as he sang.

“ _In my life, she has burst like the music of angels, the light of the sun. And my life seems to stop as if something is over but something has scarcely begun._ ” He said, playing every part the giddy lovesick fool that Marius should be, and Arya found herself genuinely feeling self pity as she sang with him.

“ _In my life, there is someone who touches my life,_ ” Arya smiled as they harmonised, though it was bittersweet as she trailed off to hear Gendry continue singing without her.

“ _Waiting near._ ”

“ _Waiting here._ ” She sang, hearing the melancholy in her own voice and she couldn’t help but be proud of her own voice.

The song built as Gendry approached the iron gate, starting in with A Heart Full of Love, and all Arya could do was stand idly by and watch them. That was one of the hardest things to do on stage, but Arya found herself completely entranced by the pair, this was the first time they had rehearsed this song and she watched with rapt attention as they sang, establishing their rapport.

“ _A heart full of love,_ ” Margery started in a second time and stopped keeping the timing of the music in her head as soon as she started to get into character, and she stepped forward, staring at Gendry’s back as she chimed in her part.

_“He was never mine to lose, why regret what could not be._  
 _These are words he’ll never say. Not to me. Not to me, not for me._  
 _His heart is full of love, he will never feel this way.”_    
Arya sang, closing her eyes for the last line and loosing herself in the three-part harmony that forever sent chills up her spine.

 

As the song came to an end Arya found herself pulled from her reverie by Luwin who had started speaking with a smile on his face. “Right, that was really excellent for a first run, fantastic. Arya, I really felt what you were singing, I don’t know if you were using emotion memory or what, but whatever you’re doing, don’t let that die with rehearsing, it’s going to take a lot of work to keep that up but I need you to do it. Gendry, you need to anchor more on those big notes, and stop paying attention to what Arya’s doing, I know she’s got a presence, but all your attention needs to be on Margery at this moment. She’s your Cosette, you have to be completely besotted with her, whether you think its love or just an obsessive infatuation, doesn’t matter, that’s where your attention has to be. Nice work with the harmony though, I don’t loose your voice when both the girls are singing too and that’s really good, it’s easy to get lost under these two. Margery, you have a lovely vibrato, but you’re playing Cosette, you really can’t show it off in this song. I know its frustrating but I need you to sing clear notes a bit more.” He said, reading off the notes that he’d made. “I liked the blocking, but Arya you need to stand further away, the more isolated you look from the lovers, the better. I liked what you two did with the gate, you didn’t immediately grab it and hold on for dear life, you let it build at a nice pace. Remember to keep hold of that, keep the moment alive between you. I want you to actually feel like that gate is the only thing that’s keeping you from kissing each other right here and now.”

 

Arya picked up a pen and took all the notes down in her script as Luwin spoke, sessions like this were invaluable for feedback, as there were less people there was more time and more focus on each actor. She wrote Gendrys down to, knowing he would forget what Luwin said as soon as they left the room, and found herself rolling her eyes at the idea of that gate being the only thing between them.

 

“Okay, I want to run that a few more times, remember, more anchoring, and no vibrato for Cosette. Arya I need you to take whatevers making it believable for you, and go at it with more confidence.” Luwin said as he restarted the track.

 

Once they’d gone through the song another half a dozen times, Luwin nodded, deeming it at a stage where it was finished working on, it would now just be a part of rehearsals whenever they did a run.

 

“Okay, I used a fair bit of time on that, so lets look at A Little Fall of Rain, while I’ve got you both here, then Margery, I’ll get you in on a lunchtime this week to do your solo, same with you Arya.” Luwin said, noting down that he would have to email both girls.

 

“Right, so we haven’t blocked the barricade yet, but what I want is just going to be a mash of old looking furniture, obviously parts of it are just going to be painted board, the tech department cant do everything for us. But the part in the middle is where you’re going to take the bullet, Arya, and the army is going to come from front stage right, and you’re going to be approaching the middle from back stage left, so as you both come towards centre stage the audience can see the whole thing.” Luwin explained. “After you’re shot, we’re going to stage a fall down the front of the barricade, and Gendry, you’re going to climb over it after her, now I don’t think we need anything fancy for this song, both your voices are strong enough to carry this song. So Arya if you could lie down as if you’ve just done this fall, and Gendry I want you to sink down beside her, and hold her up in your arms. Arya you need to make sure your hands are on your stomach where you took the bullet, because one thing I do want, is for you to take Gendrys face in your hands so we can have a handprint of blood left there. The idea is each person who dies on stage leaves a bit of blood, so Enjorlas will grab his waist as he falls leaving a stain there, and Gavroche will reach out towards him over the barricades and leave a stain on his wrist. And these stains stay there for the rest of the act, including the wedding scene, so I want the ghost of Eponine to be the most prominent, in the first half of the song I want you to cup his face to leave some blood there, and as you start to weaken, grab the front of Gendrys white shirt as if it’s going to keep you alive.”

 

Arya nodded, writing everything down in shorthand as he spoke, smiling at the idea of the bloody handprints being left like a permanent mark, it would make the Empty Chairs at Empty Tables song so much more powerful with a visual mark of each person Marius had lost. “Okay… one second.” She said as she finished writing it all out before she went to the centre of the room and led on the floor as though she’d just tumbled from the barricade.

 

“Okay so we’re going to wait without the music  while you scramble over the barricade and pick Arya up, and that’s going to come better with practice so don’t worry too much today, we’ll just focus on the vocals for now. So we’ll stage this everyone else, but what I want is for you to cry out as she’s shot before scrambling after her.” Luwin said as Gendry approached, sinking to his knees beside Arya, pulling her up so she was half in his lap, and she had a hard time staying limp as he did so, as Luwin played the music, she let out a little cough, trying to let Gendry support most of her as she started singing.

 

“ _Don’t you fret, Monsieur Marius, I don’t feel any pain. A little fall of rain, can hardly hurt me now. You’re here, that’s all I need to know._ ” Arya sang trying to keep her voice soft, differing it to her stronger vocals in the other song. “ _And you will keep me safe. And you will keep me close. And rain, will make the flowers grow._ ”

 

“ _But you will live ‘Ponine, dear god above, if I could close your wounds with words of love._ ” Gendry sang, Arya noticed he had his eyes closed as he hunched over her, and this was where she brought her hand up from her stomach to his face.

 

“ _Just hold me now, and let it be. Shelter me, comfort me._ ” She sang to him, imploring him just to look at her as she rested her hand against his cheek.

 

“ _You would live a hundred years if I could show you how. I won’t desert you now._ ” He promised, looking down at her stomach where a bullet wound would surely be.

 

“ _The rain can’t hurt me now._ ” She murmured, without moving her hand. She carried on singing as she held his face, getting through most of the mid-section of the song as he stared at her stomach.

 

As they started singing together, Arya let her hand slip from his face to his shirt and gripped onto it as though it was the only thing keeping her alive.

 

“ _And rain,_ ” She sang weakly, hoping she was still keeping the volume up loud enough. She made an impulse decision to pull herself up towards Gendry as if going to kiss him.

 

“ _And rain,_ ” He repeated, closing his eyes again.

 

“ _Will make the flowers,_ ” Arya sang softer than she thought she could as her forehead met his.

 

“ _Will make the flowers_ ,” He sang back his voice oddly dry.

 

“…” Arya let her strength leave her as she went limp as a dead person in his arms, trying to do so gradually so he wouldn’t drop her by mistake.

 

“ _Grow._ ” 

 

There was a moment of silence as the music faded out, Arya just there in Gendry’s arms. He was strong, she thought to herself. And warm. And then all too soon she felt Gendry start to move and knew that was her queue to stand up herself, and so she did, wondering why leaving his arms felt so much like regret.

 

“Okay, well, the blockings there, not that theres much to it.” Luwin laughed looking at his watch. “Well, we won’t have time to go through it again, but feedback. Gendry, you need to look at her, that’s your best friend, and you kind of always knew she loved you. Whether you love her back or not, that’s a character decision, but we know that he never acts on it. So maybe that’s regret playing, or guilt for leading her on, that’s something you need to think about, but you can’t just not look at her for the entire song. The audience need to see a connection between you, and if your eyes are darting about this way and that, its not going to work.” He told him. “Arya, you need to work on being soft, and loud. The tone to your voice is wonderful, but you need to project it. Maybe Margery could help you with that, it’s what her character has to do for a lot of it.” He suggested as he shut down the computer. “Right, that’s all for today, I’ll see you on Monday.” Luwin finished as he gathered his things and left, clearly in a hurry as they had overrun their allotted hour.

 

“Well, that was a decent rehearsal.” Arya declared as she went to put her denim jacket on and slung her bag over one shoulder, digging in her pocket to check her phone.

 

“Yeah, I guess.” Shrugged Gendry as he grabbed his rucksack and started walking to the carpark without saying anything more. Margery and Arya shared a look, before both hurrying after him. They were all headed back to the stark place anyway so Margery tagged along, and for once Arya was grateful. She didn’t know what put Gendry in this mood, but if they were alone in the car she knew they’d end up fighting. So when Margery slipped in the front seat and turned the radio on, Arya found herself barely noticing as she studied Gendry in the rear view mirror.

 

Nobody talked on that journey home, there was a strange tension in the air. But as The Bull pulled up the driveway, Arya knew she wasn’t getting out of that car until they had talked. Margery thanked Gendry for the ride and hurried out of there, and Arya couldn’t say she blamed her.

 

“What was that then?” Arya asked, climbing into the front seat without getting out of the car and going around like any other person might have thought to do.

 

“What was what?” Gendry asked, looking into the distance.

 

“You haven’t looked at me since we left, Gendry. You’re being short and-“ Arya started before he cut her off.

 

“Why do you let her sit in the front?” He asked suddenly.

 

“What?”

 

“Margery. You don’t seem to care when she takes your seat.” He said, almost accusingly.

 

“Well…” Arya said tactically, “I mean she gets there first, and well, I guess she’d feel awkward in the back…” she said, having not really thought about it. She assumed Gendry would want Margery up front, something nicer to look at after all.

 

Gendry shook his head, almost laughing. “Don’t tell me you were being polite. Arya I’ve known you since you were seven, you’re not a polite person.”

 

“Hey! I can be polite.” She retorted, frowning at him as she crossed her arms. “Besides, what does it matter, she only wants a ride home while we’re rehearsing, it’s not like she’ll be around forever.”

 

“Neither will I!” Gendry retorted. “I’m going to university next year Arry, and I highly doubt I’ll get into Winterfell. And you… you don’t seem bothered, when people take your seat, take your… your…”

 

“Place.” She finished for him, before shaking her head. Suddenly it all clicked into place in her head, she knew she was denying what was going on between them, mostly because she didn’t think he saw her as anything more than a friend, but this went beyond being stubborn. This was just Gendry not liking change and expecting Arya to fight for it so he wouldn’t have to. “Well, in case you haven’t noticed, Waters, you haven’t tried to establish what that ‘place’ is either. I didn’t know it was mine to fight for.” She said icily, refusing to be blamed and that was what this felt like.

 

“Of course its yours! What you think I’d take you home every day since I got this damned car if it wasn’t your place? You put your feet up all over my dashboard and I still wait for you every single day, Arya.” He said, frustrated.

 

“I wasn’t talking about the seat.” She said shortly.

 

“Neither was I.” He retorted, and the two sat there at sort of a stalemate.

 

“Well do something about it then!” Arya said as she got out of the car, slamming the door behind her as she stalked into her house, she didn’t even look back when she heard Gendry’s car door opening. He could take his stupid Bull and his stupid front seat and his stupid university places and drive them into the ground for all she cared. Or so she pretended.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: Okay, so I know I dropped the ball on this majorly, I don't know when the next chapters going to be up, but I really don't think it's going to be such long a wait. I'm really sorry, uni got on top of me, and in case you haven't guessed, I do acting. Only I do it full time and at uni, so the 9-6 rehearsals haven't left me a lot of time for this and it just took a back seat in my life. I'm terribly sorry for that. Anyway, I hope you like the chapter, I AM going to finish this story, I promise you all. It's on the way, and soon I'll have all summer to write. Comments appreciated!


	5. Oh. That makes sense.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Okay can we put this conversation to bed now that we’re going into the house, I don’t want everyone getting the idea that I’m some kind of emotional person.”

Friday night passed. No new messages.

 

Saturday passed. No new messages.

 

Sunday passed. No new messages.

 

No knock at the door, no letters, no ‘bumping into her’ after hockey practice, that he knew she had because he nearly always gave her a lift. No nothing.

 

Screw Gendry. If he wasn’t going to do anything about it than neither was Arya, though, she could admit that it stung. A lot. But fine, if Gendry didn’t want to give her ‘her place’ then she wasn’t going to fight to get it. She shouldn’t have to, after all, she’d told him if he wanted her, he could do something about it. He was choosing not to.

 

She asked Sansa to take her to hockey practice. And to pick her up from rehearsals. And to take her to school in the mornings. It wasn’t a problem, after all, Sansa was driving around anyway, but it was a significant change, going from Gendrys car to Sansas. Arya knew next to nothing about cars, but she loved the purr of Gendrys engine, Sansa’s ran silently, it was almost too smooth, it felt like they were gliding over the road. The Bull, that felt like driving. You could practically feel the asphalt below you, it was nice. Not that Arya would ever admit it, she refused to submit to a carbon footprint by running her own car. She could drive, she loved to drive, and sure maybe part of her anti-pollution start was the fact that she couldn’t afford her own car, she would have to get a job for that, and who has time for that between hockey and acting? She would rather go without some luxuries than miss out on rehearsal. Not that Arya ever went short, her family were from old money, but their parents were keen on instilling a work ethic into their children. If they wanted cars, they would, buy, insure, and run them on their own money, they would be expected to run errands for the house and pick up the younger ones from this that and the other. Their allowances came from doing chores, and they had to use it to run their phones, and honestly, Arya wouldn’t have it any other way. She hated asking her parents for money, so she didn’t have a car. So, she didn’t _want_ a car. Not really.

 

It was a Wednesday afternoon when Sansa finally asked why Arya was riding back with her after rehearsals now. Margery wasn’t in todays rehearsal, and Arya had slipped out of the room before Gendry even got a chance to offer her a lift; besides, she had already asked Sansa to pick her up.

 

“Well, you said you didn’t mind, liked the excuse to drive.” Arya shrugged, resisting the temptation to put her feet on the dashboard. Sansa would just make her walk home if she even dreamed of ruining her flash new car.

 

“No, I don’t mind, but you’ve always got a lift home from Gendry. He hasn’t been about the house for a couple days, so, I just wondered.” Sansa asked, leaning forward to check both ways at a T-junction before pulling out.

 

“Surprised you noticed, you and Margery are studying so much at the moment I wouldn’t think you’d know who else was in the house at all.” Arya said, looking out the car window as house after house whizzed past them, all looking identical, and boring.

 

“Oh shut it, I was just asking.” Sansa retorted, a little sharply. Arya looked up, she hadn’t said anything to wind her sister up, and wondered why on earth Sansa had started blushing. Her brows knitted together for a moment as she studied her sister, what was so embarrassing about studying-

 

Oh.

 

Right.

 

That… that made a lot of sense, actually.

 

She couldn’t help herself, she just started laughing. How on earth could she have been so blind? Margery always made an excuse to hang out with Sansa, they spent hours together ‘studying’, and no wonder Margery started getting a lift back with them, it would be an easy way to surprise Sansa.

 

“Arya, I will kick you out of this car.” Sansa said through gritted teeth. “This is why I don’t talk to you about it.”

 

“No! No, god, no Sans, you do you. I’m not laughing at you, I’m laughing at me.” Arya clarified, pulling her laughter back as she thought she’d upset her sister. “No, I didn’t realise, I mean, I didn’t know you were gay for one, but me and Gendry kind of had a fight, and it might have been because I got jealous of how well Margery got on with him, and he was getting annoyed that I didn’t seem bothered by that.” She explained, letting out another small chuckle. “Oh my god, of course I’m worried about the girl who’s dating my sister, how did I not know about this?”

 

Sansa pulled up at a traffic light and looked over at Arya. “How… how on earth did you not realise I was gay, I’ve had a pride flag in my window for months? I came out at family dinner like, four months ago Arya.”

 

“I’ll be honest, I might have been texting under the table. I do that a lot. So I probably just wasn’t listening.” She admitted with a guilty grin. “Plus there was that whole Joffrey thing.”

 

“Don’t remind me. Though, looking back, he was getting pissy cause I wouldn’t put out… I guess neither of us knew I just wasn’t into sex with guys.” Sansa laughed a little.

 

“Not that you needed a reason, but yeah, that could have been why you didn’t want to.” She grinned.

 

“So… this fight with Gendry?” Sansa prompted as the light turned green.

 

Arya groaned leaning her head back against her seat. “I don’t even know. We did my death scene in rehearsal, and I think he just realised that he might actually loose me? Or something like that. And then I’ve been letting Margery have the front seat, cause, I mean, come on who wouldn’t prefer Margery to me? And, he kind of got irritated that I was just, letting her ‘take my place’.” She explained, using air quotes. “So I told him, that he never told me it was my place, so why should I fight for something that I didn’t know I had. And he was like, of course its your place I wouldn’t pick you up if it wasn’t, and I said, well, I wasn’t talking about the seat, then he said, neither was I, and so I just told him that he should do something about it then, and we haven’t spoken properly since.”

 

“Jesus Arya, take a breath.”

 

“Are all boys this dumb?”

 

“Probably.”

 

“Am I gonna have to do something?”

 

“Hell no, you told him to do something about it, so let him do something. He’ll figure it out eventually.”

 

“Maybe.”

 

“Do you know what I can’t believe? You guys finally admitted you liked each other, using a stupid car metaphor. It’s so you.” Sansa giggled as she pulled into the driveway.

 

“Oh shut up.” Arya laughed, picking her bag up from the back seat. “Thanks Sans.”

 

“Anytime, you little emotional dunce.” She grinned.

 

“Emotional dunce?”

 

“Yeah, cause, you know, you haven’t seen that Gendrys been into you for years, or well, since you were fourteen at least.”

 

“He has not. He’d have done something by now if so.”

 

“Arya, boys are dumb, but trust me, he’s been into you for ages. Probably didn’t want to do anything cause he’s three years older than you.”

 

“Okay can we put this conversation to bed now that we’re going into the house, I don’t want everyone getting the idea that I’m some kind of emotional person.” Arya retorted as they got out of the car.

 

She smiled as her older sister led the way into the house, sure they fought a lot, and Sansa’s teasing used to hurt when they were little, but Arya got pretty lucky in the sister department. She’d take it back the next time Sansa wanted to give her a makeover, but for right now, she felt really lucky to have Sansa as her big sister.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quicker update than last time! I've now finished my first year at uni (Including taking a Shakespeare play on tour!! Exciting times lads!) so hopefully I'll get some more time to write this!   
> Oh also, whenever I'm going over or writing this fic, I always use the original London cast recording to listen to, and though not everyones voice is what I imagine, in my head that is EXACTLY Arya's voice, it's so unique and I love it so much.  
> As always, feedback is greatly appreciated!


	6. My Pleasure

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They stayed like that for a while, and it was peaceful and content. Both of them pleased to have the other back and content to stand in the driveway for longer than was probably normal.

It had been a week now and Arya was starting to feel lonely. Gendry was her best friend and until he was gone she had no idea how big a gap was left in her days. She sighed as she sat crosslegged on her bed, writing up an English essay she’d left painfully late and blasting some heavy music through her speakers to keep her company. There was only two weeks left of rehearsals before the show, and straight after that Arya had her GCSE exams, so it really wasn’t the best time for this fracture in their friendship to appear. Arya, however, was nothing if not stubborn and told herself she could probably do with the extra time to study. 

Half the problem now was her, she left rehearsals first each day, making sure she was in Sansa’s car before Gendry had a chance to talk to her in person. Though, Arya reasoned, he did have her number. He knew where she lived, where she would be. If he wanted to talk to her he could, Arya just wasn’t offering up that opportunity in person. She was embarrassed, of course he wouldn’t ‘do something about it’, he was just talking about her as a friend. What else could he have meant by that anyway? She was just Arya horseface, Arya underfoot, plain old Arya with the dark hair and the long face. She didn’t think she was pretty, she didn’t have homely curves like Sansa, Arya was skinny and any shape she did have to her was toned and muscled as opposed to soft and rounded. Her breasts were a decent size, she supposed, but who had time to get a decent fitting bra when she had hockey practice and theatre rehearsals? No it was much easier to wear sports bras so they didn’t get in the way. Sure, she knew how to put make up on and stuff, but again, who had the time? She could get up early and do it like Sansa, but Arya liked sleep too much. She wasn’t the pretty sister, and that was okay. Arya did what she liked to do, and that was more important than what anyone else thought of her. And while she still believed that, she also started wondering what Gendry thought of her. They were close, closer than any friend Arya had ever had, it would be so easy to slip into a relationship, so easy to take that jump and maybe nothing much would actually change. 

Or maybe everything would change. 

Arya didn’t know what scared her more. 

At any rate, he hadn’t spoken to her since. Didn’t even come to her hockey game last weekend, though according to Hotpie, Gendry had been taking on a ridiculous amount of shifts at Motts garage, so he was probably working. 

Or, he was ignoring her. 

“Arya! Could you turn that music down, I’ve been calling you downstairs for the past ten minutes!” 

Arya physically jumped, dropping her laptop as her mother bustled into her room and made a beeline for her speakers, turning the music down so low that Arya could barely hear it anymore. 

“Sorry mum, it’s a bit early for dinner though?” she said, a little sheepishly as she realised she’d probably deafened half the house by now. 

“Dinner won’t be for a while, but Gendry’s here, I did shout up.” Catelyn said as she habitually started picking up Arya’s school uniform. She’d changed into a pair of pyjama trousers and an old band shirt as soon as she got home, tossing her hair up and starting on her English essay. 

“Oh. Isn’t he here for Jon?” she asked, getting up and glancing at her mirror. She looked a mess, but she guessed Gendry wasn’t going to talk to her anyway. 

“No, sweetheart, he asked for you.” Catelyn said with a knowing smile, something that made Arya roll her eyes. 

“Why didn’t he just come upstairs like normal then?” She sighed as she left her room to go downstairs, but her heart skipped a beat out of nerves when she realised that he wasn’t ignoring her. He wanted to talk to her at last. 

“Hey.” Arya said as she walked into the kitchen to see Gendry sitting on one of the breakfast bar stools with a glass of water she knew her mother had insisted on giving him. 

“Hey yourself.” Gendry replied easily, grinning at her and raising one eyebrow at her attire. “Nice choice of pyjamas, absolutely fetching.” He teased. 

So… it was still normal then. Arya bit the inside of her lip for a moment before deciding to go with it.

“Saw it in one of Sansa’s magazines. Ten fashion styles designed to drive him crazy, this is number seven, ‘bedhead chique’.” She retorted with a grin of her own as she crossed her arms across her chest. She should have at least thrown a bra on. 

“Well, you’re pulling it off.” He laughed, reaching up and scratching the back of his neck. 

“Thanks.” Arya smiled, going to the fridge and pouring herself a glass of water. 

There was an odd silence for a moment and as she turned around, she could have sworn she caught Gendry staring at her ass as she reached down to put the water jug back in the fridge. 

He cleared his throat. 

“So, uh, sorry I haven’t been around much, I took on a load of extra shifts at Motts… and then I had to sort things out with your dad, and ask Sansa what size jacket you’d need, and then I had to convince your mum that it was totally safe... but I got something for you.” Gendry smiled as he stood up, reaching for her hand. 

“What are you even talking about?” Arya demanded raising her eyebrows as he rambled on about jackets and safety, but she took his hand anyway and allowed him to take her out   
to the driveway, the fact she was in pyjamas be damned. 

Sitting there, right next to Sansa’s car, a vintage Vespa. Though she didn’t know much about cars, old bikes were something Arya loved. It was black with silver detail and sitting on the seat was a black helmet with a silver wolf painted on it. 

Gendry walked over, opening the compartment and pulling out a plain leather jacket, clearly designed for biking. 

“Someone was selling a stripped down Vespa, and I mean, it didn’t have much of anything going for it, so I did a lot of work on the engine, made sure you’ve got new brakes and tyres, and then did a paint job on it. Tobho said as long as I worked on it after the paying customers were sorted, he didn’t mind. And I thought, well, I mean, you deserve your own ‘place’, not just some passenger seat, and next year I might not be able to give you rides home anymore, and, well, I know you like old bikes and stuff, so maybe you’d like one of your own. Your dad didn’t like that I was buying it for you, but when I said I got it on the cheap and was doing it up myself he stopped trying to pay for it, and your mum was worried it wasn’t safe, but I made sure to get you L plates until you pass your test and got the helmet and jacket and stuff so you wouldn’t go out without them and Sansa helped me pick out the jacket, and Jon painted the helmet… but yeah…” Gendry rambled as Arya just stood there staring at the bike. 

She stepped forward, running her hands over the leather seat and picking up the helmet, of course Jon had painted a wolf. It looked amazing, all of it did. She put the helmet back down and practically launched herself at Gendry. 

“Thank you, thank you, thank you!” she squealed as she flung her arms around his neck and hugged him, he instantly wrapped his arms around her waist and spun her round with a laugh. 

“Well, I thought I should do something to make up for the other day. I didn’t mean to be such a prick about things.” Gendry chuckled, lowering her body until her feet were safely on the ground. 

“This is amazing, thank you.” She repeated with a grin, still hugging him tightly. 

“My pleasure.” He said, resting his chin on her head.

They stayed like that for a while, and it was peaceful and content. Both of them pleased to have the other back and content to stand in the driveway for longer than was probably normal. 

“Oh, also your mum told me to say that you can’t take it out until tomorrow because of your English essay.” Gendry added, breaking the silence but not making a move to step out of their hug.

Arya groaned into Gendrys chest. “I’ll finish it later.” She grumbled, rolling her eyes. Sometimes her parents felt overbearing, but she knew it was from a place of love and that made her feel kind of bad for getting annoyed at it. 

“We should go in, it’s getting cold.” Gendry noted, looking up at the sky and taking note of how the sun was starting to set, though just barely. 

“Fine, want to keep me and this English essay company? Pycells a dick, he assigned another English mock essay for homework.” She sighed, stepping out of their hug and making move to go inside. 

“Sure.” Gendry laughed, remembering his GCSE’s a few years ago. “Beats going home and running lines on my own.”

“Sweet. Then tomorrow I’m going out on that Vespa.” Arya grinned as they made their way inside.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah booiiiiiiiii, finally starting to get things back on track, but Jesus I can never get these two to just sit and TALK ABOUT THEIR EMOTIONS! Like, sure Gendry can do a sweet thing like get Arya a goddamn bike, but can't say "Hey, I like you, wanna make out?" Like, it just, doesn't happen lmao.  
> Rest assured, they're getting there.  
> Again, feedback appreciated!!


End file.
